Icelandic man tries to uncover the meaning of his bogus tattoo

Enigma Haukur Unnar Þorkelsson, celebrated the birth of his son by by getting a tatto of what he believed to be old, Icelandic runes on his lower arm. He was wrong.

A young Icelandic man, Haukur Unnar Þorkelsson, celebrated the birth of his son by getting a tatto onto his forearm of what he was told to be old, Icelandic runes. Regrettably for him they were not.

After having done some research himself, he came to realise the symbols were in fact, not from the runic alphabet. Haukur Unnar decided to write to the National University’s information site, Vísindavefurinn, in the hope of uncovering the meaning of his tattoo.

“The tattoo artist told me the symbols were called Valhalla runes, which I’m not sure exist,” Haukur Unnar wrote in his letter to Vísindavefurinn.

Þórgunnur Snædal, who specialised in Nordic runes, was the one to answer Haukur Unnar’s inquire. She says the symbols tattooed on his arm are not from the runic alphabet, but could be magical signs used for charms.

“The first and third symbols in the second row resemble the old, Germanic rune for the letter d,” she wrote.